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Trillia Grand Prix
The Trillia Grand Prix is an annual race that takes place on the Lightway of the planetary ring orbiting Trillia IX. This event is Trillia’s single largest tourist attraction and is widely broadcast throughout the sector for those who lack the substantial funds necessary to attend in-person. The Grand Prix is a multi-day event which features several races of varying speeds. The races are classified by the designations Omega I through Omega V, with Omega V being the fastest speed and, therefore, the “main event” of the Grand Prix. Betting on the results of the Grand Prix is a favorite pastime of the nobility - both those who are able to attend in-person and those who watch from off-world. The Trilliant Ring is happy to act as a broker for these bets, accepting wagers on both the anticipated winners and on which drivers will not survive the race. History Light Bridge Development While construction on the Planetary Ring was in progress, the Trilliant Ring’s Research and Development Department began work on a system that would allow large structures to be moved along the Ring via connection to the Lightway. The eventual product of this development was the invention of the Light Bridge. The original Light Bridges were designed to be used to move massive structures such as the commercial and residential centers that are attached to the Ring today. But Trilliant R&D recognized that Light Bridges would also be needed for mass transit along the Ring, and anticipated that some customers would prefer a more private option for transportation as well. Therefore, the R&D department set out to design smaller versions of the Light Bridges that could be adapted for these purposes. Smaller Light Bridges posed unique issues, as they would need to be able to navigate around any debris fields that built up inside the Lightway. (The larger Light Bridges had enough mass to either move or crush debris fields without derailing themselves or causing damage to the structures they carried.) Trilliant programmers sought to create automated driving systems that would ensure the safety of passengers aboard mass transit and personal Lightway vehicles. But before algorithms could be written to anticipate and react to any debris in the Lightway, the existing debris fields needed to be mapped and studied. Mapping the Debris Fields Trilliant R&D mined the genetic profiles of every inhabitant of Trillia IX, searching for individuals with heightened reaction times, eyesight, hand-eye coordination, and other desirable characteristics. Twenty-five “volunteers” were selected and given cybernetic enhancements to further augment these abilities. Known as the “The Fleet,” these twenty-five individuals were trained to use single-occupant vehicles that attached to the Lightway using miniaturized Light Bridges. These vehicles were initially named "Hyperboats" but this designation fell out of favor quickly, as many in the R&D Department thought it was a "terrible" name. The vehicles were outfitted with Trilliant’s most precise mapping equipment, which transmitted data back to the R&D department nearly instantaneously, so there would be minimal data lost in the event of a crash. The mapping project took several months to complete and resulted in numerous fatalities, but eventually enough information was gathered by the R&D department to allow Programming to design the necessary algorithms to safely predict and respond to the debris fields. Illegal Lightway Racing After The Fleet was officially released from service, a handful of its surviving members became obsessed with the danger and speeds involved with Lightway navigation. These retired drivers managed to steal and reverse engineer at least one decommissioned Lightway vehicle so they could learn how to build more of their own. They began to teach other capable Trillians how to drive the Lightway using these makeshift vehicles, and within a few months of The Fleet’s release, illegal Lightway racing had become an extremely popular pastime. Although the drivers themselves were typically of Trillia’s lower classes, many of the wealthiest and most influential Trillians enjoyed betting on the races. Legalized Lightway Racing Lightway racing was initially deemed illegal by the Trilliant Ring, as there were serious concerns about racing vehicles colliding with legal traffic. But the Trilliant Ring’s Upper Echelon quickly reversed its policy after seeing how popular the activity had become and how much profit could be earned by managing the betting on these races. Regulations were enacted in 3112 that determined which portions of the Ring could be used for Lightway racing practice, and during what times of day these practice runs could occur. The first Trillia Grand Prix was organized in 3114, to coincide with the centennial anniversary of the founding of The Trilliant Ring. Racetrack and Vehicles All normal transportation within the planetary ring is suspended during the Grand Prix, and highly-specialized single-occupant racing vehicles are attached to the Lightway via customized Light Bridge. The Lightway is composed of two thin energy beams which are each a few meters in diameter; therefore, the “race track” itself is a cylinder. Additionally, the two beams travel in opposite directions, and especially skilled (or reckless) drivers can “jump” their vehicles from one stream to the other (see “The Sekai Maneuver” below). The nature of the Lightway allows for more freedom, creativity, and maneuverability than traditional racing. Due to the extremely high rate of speed at which these vehicles travel, crashes - resulting either from collision with another vehicle or a driver’s loss of control - are very common and always fatal. A maximum of 25 participants may enter the Omega V Grand Prix each year, and it has yet to be completed without at least one fatality. Drivers and Sponsorship Because of the highly-specialized nature of both the vehicles and the raceway itself, the overwhelming majority of drivers chosen to participate in the early years of the Grand Prix were Trillia natives who had been cybernetically enhanced. Most noble Houses and major corporations originally "competed" in the Trillia Grand Prix through patronage. By sponsoring specific racers and building better, faster, more agile vehicles - and drivers - organizations raked in acclaim and advertising opportunities. While the vehicles used for the Grand Prix are designed and manufactured almost exclusively on Trillia, sponsoring corporations and Houses do have some discretion regarding the vehicles’ appearances and options. In more recent years, as the acclaim and viewership of the Grand Prix has increased, it has become much more common to see Grand Prix pilots from throughout the sector. Many of these competitors come to Trillia years in advance in order to receive the augmentations and training necessary to race in a Grand Prix. Trillia natives remain the most frequent winners, but the diversity of the pool of racers increases with each Grand Prix. As such, sponsoring corporations and Houses often seek out talented pilots from their own homeworlds to send to Trillia for training. When a fatality inevitably occurs, the vehicle(s) and driver(s) involved in the crash are destroyed and become part of the debris inside the ring. Shortly after the conclusion of each year’s Grand Prix, The Trilliant Ring marks the approximate spot where a crash occurred with a small memorial to the driver(s) who were lost, and sections of the Lightway are identified using the names of those who have perished there. Notable Winners Trilliant Winners Arden Bentzen: The winner of the inaugural Trillia Grand Prix was a retired member of The Fleet named Arden Bentzen. Arden was the clear favorite to win the race, as he was instrumental in working with the Trilliant Ring to adapt the practice of illegal Lightway racing to its legalized form. This first Grand Prix remains the most deadly in history, with only 7 of 25 entrants surviving the race. The high mortality rate of this Grand Prix was blamed upon the relative inexperience of some of the entrants, particularly those who had not been members of The Fleet. Orin Locke: The 67th Trillia Grand Prix was won by Orin Locke, a Trilliant Ring employee and racing enthusiast. Non-Trilliant Winners While noble Houses and major corporations sponsor a large portion of the Grand Prix's entrants, it is extremely rare for anyone other than a Trilliant native to pilot the vehicles, and rarer still for non-Trilliants to survive the race. In the 86 years the Grand Prix has been held, only two non-Trilliants have won. Princeps Fornax Rasmussen Jakop: In 3182, Princeps Fornax Rasmussen Jakop entered the 69th Grand Prix on a dare. House Fornax constructed the vehicle used by Rasmussen Jakop, confident they could produce something superior to the standard Trilliant vehicles. Rasmussen Jakop won the race, though narrowly, and his win is used by some members of House Fornax to prove that they were right about the Destiny Fiasco. The Trilliant Ring maintains that Rasmussen Jakop's win proves nothing except that the Trilliant contestants who entered the 69th Grand Prix were vastly below-standard. To date, no one who raced in the 69th Grand Prix has been allowed to return. Echo Pyxis McClellan Apurva: The 79th Trillia Grand Prix was won by Echo Pyxis McClellan Apurva. Pyxis Echoes are known as the best pilots within House Pyxis and are among the best pilots in the sector. McClellan Apurva had long been a fan of the Grand Prix and spent years studying Lightway racing under the tutelage of a handful of previous Grand Prix winners. Even with this training, Trilliant betting brokers recorded that McClellan Apurva was considered a long-shot to win. "Doc" Nikita: Racing on behalf of the Church of Humanity, Repentant, "Doc" Nikita won the 86th Trillia Grand Prix in 3200. This shy xenoengineer loved aliens and warm socks and didn't care much for people. There was one person, however, that Nikita simply could not stand, a person with whom she shared a long passive aggressive rivalry. When Coco Cobra announced herself as one of Trilliant's racers, Nikita couldn't resist the chance to compete with her nemesis. Despite Nikita's insistence that she would certainly not survive, let alone win, the event, she overcame the odds to become the Grand Prix champion. Named Maneuvers The Sekai Maneuver Named for the driver who first attempted it, the Sekai Maneuver is an extremely dangerous and precise move which involves “jumping” a vehicle from one energy beam in the Lightway to the other. Manyara Sekai won the 43rd Trilliant Grand Prix in the homestretch after eliminating her opponent, Berhane Miliu. Miliu was drafting his vehicle closely behind Sekai’s, and Sekai knew that Miliu would likely be able to pass her before they reached the finish line. When Sekai saw a debris field ahead of her in the beam, she waited until the last possible moment and then “jumped” her vehicle to the opposite beam. Sekai and her sponsors had requested a special modification to her vehicle - Light Bridges on both the bottom and the top of the chassis. For the approximately 1.006 seconds that Sekai’s vehicle was attached to the reverse beam, she was traveling both backwards and upside-down. Once Miliu collided with the debris, Sekai quickly “jumped” back to the forward beam. This double Light Bridge modification is now largely standard on Grand Prix vehicles, though only 3 other racers have successfully completed the Sekai Maneuver, and another 22 have attempted it and failed. Berhane Miliu is also memorialized in the lexicon of the Grand Prix, as the homestretch of the race is now known as the “Miliu Mile.” Merchandise Limited Edition Perfume Range To Celebrate the 86th Grand Prix, The Trilliant Ring announced a limited edition range of fragrances for each major sponsor. Each product was designed according to the core themes and values of the racers of the 86th Grand Prix (or their sponsors) to incentivise Grand Prix enthusiasts to collect them all at the event. Perfume_14RD.png Perfume_ACRE.png Perfume_Aquila.png Perfume_CHR.png Perfume_Crux.png Perfume_Deathless.png Perfume_Eridanus.png Perfume_Fornax.png Perfume_HC.png Perfume_Lyra.png Perfume_Prism.png Perfume_Pyxis.png Perfume_Reticulum.png Perfume_Serpens.png Perfume_Triangulum.png Perfume_Trilliant-Ring.gif Perfume_UPC.png Perfume_Vagrant.png Perfume_Vela.png Category:Entertainment Category:Events Category:The Trilliant Ring